Suggestions on how to design tables effectively for multiple pulldown menus

[Perimeter]

**New to Access **

I am building a database to store failures in a manufacturing process.
There will be several unrelated pull-down menus used to build a record..

How best should i design the table structure behind that?
Say i have 5 pull-downs, should i make a table for each with each having their specific entries in the first column?
Or should i build a master "pull-down" table that has each of the pull-down entries in separate columns?



I trying to learn the best practices, and understand the logic/theory behind creating the tables.

Thanks in advance.

[Micron]

I trying to learn the best practices, and understand the logic/theory behind creating the tables.

Then you should review all of this, especially normalization. Then you can ask specific questions suited to what you learn. It would not be unusual to have a table for each combo, but not if you're going to design your tables like spreadsheets.

Normalization Parts I, II, III, IV, and V
http://rogersaccessblog.blogspot.com...on-part-i.html
and/or
http://holowczak.com/database-normalization/

Entity-Relationship Diagramming: Part I, II, III and IV
http://rogersaccessblog.blogspot.com...ng-part-i.html

How do I Create an Application in Microsoft Access?
http://rogersaccessblog.blogspot.com...cation-in.html

Important for success:
Naming conventions - http://access.mvps.org/access/general/gen0012.htm
https://www.access-programmers.co.uk...d.php?t=225837

What not to use in names
- http://allenbrowne.com/AppIssueBadWord.html

About Auto Numbers
- http://access.mvps.org/access/general/gen0025.htm

The evils of lookup fields - http://access.mvps.org/access/lookupfields.htm
Table and PK design tips - http://www.fmsinc.com/free/newtips/primarykey.asp
About calculated table fields - http://allenbrowne.com/casu-14.html
About Multi Value Fields - https://www.isladogs.co.uk/multivalu...lds/index.html

[Edgar]

Create one table for each field that needs a combobox. If the field is boolean, then that is not necessary, but it can also be done. You could also have one table holding all of your options, but it's best to avoid that approach for reasons pertaining to scaling up and finetuning the database.